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HSBC Completes Sale Of Retail Banking Business In France
HSBC Continental Europe has completed the sale of its retail banking business in France to Crédit Commercial de France (CCF), a subsidiary of My Money Group.
In a statement, HSBC Continental Europe said it will remain active in France but will refocus on its corporate and investment banking business alongside private banking and asset management.
All HSBC branches in France will be taken over by CCF, and all HSBC cards will continue to work as normal until expiry, after which they will be replaced by CCF.
Transfers and direct debits using the HSBC IBAN in France will be automatically transferred to customers’ CCF accounts by June 30, 2024.
Spanish Central Bank Names Partners For Upcoming CBDC Pilot
Banco de España (BDE) has named Cecabank, Abanca and Adhara Blockchain as its three partners in an upcoming central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot.
The pilot, which will be conducted over the next six months, will focus on interbank payments using wholesale CBDC in a simulated environment.
This will include processing and settlement activities and exchange of multiple wholesale CBDCs issued by foreign central banks.
In addition, the pilot will study the use of wholesale CBDC for settling tokenised bond purchases.
The pilot highlights Spain’s proactive approach to experimentation with digital assets. As covered by Vixio, Spain is also aiming to introduce the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation six months ahead of other EU member states.
India’s CBDC Transactions Top 1m
Indian banks have reportedly disbursed some employee benefits through the digital rupee in December.
This meant that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) met its target of 1m daily transactions by end-2023, sources have told Reuters.
The RBI's deputy governor said in July that this was the aspiration of the central bank.
However, in October, transactions were only averaging 25,000, despite being available for use via the country's popular Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
